Tonight (Fri) the North Country teams split the first night of their trip
to Hockey East land.
 
I went to the SLU-UMass Lowell game where the Saints pulled out a 7-6
squeaker over a tough Chiefs squad.  I have no box, but a few details:
overall UML outplayed and outhustled the Saints along with getting some
big breaks from referee Bill Jones, but SLU came up with the big goals
when they needed them to win.  SLU was clearly the more talented team, but
for much of the game they allowed the scrappy Chiefs to take the play
to them.  Then they would turn it on and bang one in and go to sleep
again.
 
Jones was letting quite a bit go for much of the game, then with about ten
minutes left and the score tied, he decided to start calling penalties.  In
fact, he called an incredible *five* straight minors on SLU, all separate,
which resulted in about six straight minutes of power play time for Lowell
including about five straight minutes of 5 on 3 action.  Lowell came up
with one goal in that stretch to go up 6-5.  SLU tallied with a couple of
minutes left and got the winner with about 20 seconds left.  Boy, it's
tough recapping the game when you don't have a sheet to go off of.  This
is all from memory so I apologize for any errors.
 
The SLU penalties were all deserved, IMO, but the problem is that Jones was
suddenly calling stuff he had let go earlier.  If the Chiefs had any semblance
of a power play, they should have easily won this game.  I'm sure SLU feels
very fortunate to have come out with the win.
 
One thing that seemed to hurt the Saints was the virtual lack of a neutral
zone at the Tully Forum.  The rink is very short, about 185 feet, and when
SLU's points would cough up the puck, Lowell only needed a couple of strides
before moving the puck into the offensive zone.  Teams that like to skate
always have trouble playing at Lowell for this reason.
 
In the other game, Northeastern beat Clarkson 5-2.  I caught the end of this
on tape delay.  The Huskies led 4-0 at the start of the third, but Dubinsky
scored two quick goals to get Clarkson back in it.  But Tom Cole slammed the
door shut and NU added one late for the 5-2 final.  The Huskies are now
3-0; last season they didn't notch their third win until January 4th.
 
All four teams change dance partners for tomorrow night with SLU going to NU
and Clarkson playing at UMass-Lowell.
 
If anyone sees boxes and wants to post them, go ahead; I will be going to
West Point for Merrimack-Army and will not get to post again till Sunday or
Monday.  If I have anything that hasn't been posted by then, I'll send it out.
I have no other scores from tonight as of yet.
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Mike Machnik        [log in to unmask]       [log in to unmask]